Good deed leads to special encounter with flag

I don't do it in the hope of good stuff coming back to me, but rather because it feels right. The world would be nicer if we all treated one another better.

But, occasionally, unexpectedly great rewards do seem to follow good deeds, as my youngest brother and I found out while in Gettysburg this month.

Dan and I were headed to Little Round Top on July 2, almost 150 days to the hour after Col. Strong Vincent and the 83rd Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry Regiment fought Confederates there in the Civil War battle.

We're Strong Vincent High School graduates and were in Gettysburg for the 150th anniversary of the battle. While the rest of our family opted for ice cream, Dan and I decided to drive to Little Round Top to see the monument to the 83rd with the likeness of Vincent on top.

Being a significant anniversary date, the site was, as expected, packed. Traffic was inching along bumper to bumper on the road to Little Round Top. Twice, cars that had pulled to the side signaled that they wanted back in and Dan, who was driving, let them.

Eventually, we made it close enough to park and walk to the monument, where we spent a couple of minutes talking to a re-enactor before asking him to take our photo. As we were posing beside the monument, a voice asked if we'd like a reproduction of the 83rd's flag in our picture.

Lawrence Keener-Farley is a Gettysburg National Military Park volunteer historian. He was presenting talks about Civil War flags on Little Round Top that day and had used the 83rd's flag as an example.

He graciously allowed Dan and me to hold the 6-by-61/2-foot silk flag that was made for a re-enactment unit in 1998. The flag, on a 9-foot-10 pole, is a reproduction of the second state color of the 83rd, which Keener-Farley said was carried by the regiment on Little Round Top.

Dan and I were thrilled, first, to be there at that moment, and second, to pose with that flag.

If he hadn't allowed those cars in front of us, we probably would have reached the monument sooner, but we might have missed out entirely on a truly great experience that we'll talk about for years.

DANA MASSING can be reached at 870-1729. Send e-mail to dana.massing@timesnews.com. Follow her on Twitter at twitter.com/ETNmassing.